our week

“Mom, you forgot to put sheets on our guys’ bed!” Miranda exclaimed this evening as she and CaiQun and I walked into their room. “That’s not exactly what happened, babe,” I responded. What actually happened is that this afternoon, I had my first time out away from the girls. There was a women’s event at our church, at which various women were going to be sharing stories of God’s grace in their lives, and Matt said he would be willing to try to get the girls home from church and fed and down for their naps so that I could go to this event. All seemed to be going well until Miranda woke up, and Matt realized he’d forgotten to put a diaper on her for naptime, and she had peed all over the bed. Oops. Both our washer and dryer are working hard this evening, and we covered the girls’ mattress with beach towels before putting a new set of sheets on it, since the mattress pad wasn’t quite dry yet at bedtime.

It’s been that kind of a week this week. Last Sunday night I burned my finger on one of the racks in the oven. Then by Monday afternoon I was certain I had a urinary tract infection, necessitating a trip to my doctor on Tuesday morning. Of course I brought my two young children with me, because that’s what I do, and in any case, CaiQun has been with us for far too short a time for me to consider leaving her with anyone, but thankfully my friend Liz again offered to accompany me on this exciting outing. And quite an outing it was – 4 people hanging out in the waiting room, anxiously listening for my name to be called so that I could pee in a cup (I did leave CaiQun sitting in the stroller with Liz for long enough to do that on my own) and the doctor could confirm what I already knew and write a prescription for antibiotics. But we went out for ice cream afterwards, so it wasn’t all bad 🙂

Thursday morning I was moving some books from one side of our tv stand to the other, and, as I stood up, I must have twisted slightly, such that I slammed my head hard into our old, heavy tv. I was terrified that I might have a concussion and pass out and leave my two small children with the run of the house for the hours until Matt finished teaching and came home. My friend Liz came over – again – to make sure I seemed okay, and a call to my former-ER-nurse friend later that afternoon confirmed that I was really probably alright, in spite of the ugly goose-egg bump in the middle of my left eyebrow.

And to top it all off, on Friday morning CaiQun dropped Matt’s x-box controller onto my toe, and it hurt for a good day and a half or so.

For someone who very rarely visits the doctor or has any sort of medical issues, this has been quite the week for me.

In spite of all that, though, there have been good things. Big-picture, things are going beautifully. We are regularly getting more sleep and sleeping at more normal times, and that makes everything else so much easier. On Friday night both girls actually slept the entire night in their own bed and didn’t wake up until around 9:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, which is nothing short of miraculous for any child of ours.

Attachment and bonding are continuing to go well for all of us, and we’re really enjoying our time together. We’ve also been able to spend a bit of time with some friends this week. We had a couple days of nice weather, so we’ve been able to get out on a few walks and catch up with some neighbors, whom we haven’t seen much through the winter months. The girls and I even ventured out to the park by ourselves one afternoon! We are loving the double stroller (another huge thank you to our missional community group!).

In our phone conversation yesterday, my dad mentioned that he missed our daily blog updates. Frequent updates these days would probably be significantly less interesting than those from our time in China, though. You liked reading about the day we met CaiQun? Or thought it was interesting hearing about our trip to the Shaolin Temple? Or our adventures at the Guangzhou zoo? Well, this week I can talk to you about poop – specifically how my days are now subject to the tyranny of unpredictable toddler poop. Need to head out the door for a doctor appointment in 5 minutes? Of course that’s when CaiQun will need to have her 2nd poopy diaper of the morning changed. Bedtime is approaching? Miranda may very well announce that her belly doesn’t feel good and she might have to poop. Instances like these are often the notable events in my life right now. And somehow those moments just don’t seem quite as blog-worthy.

And yet…in spite of my existence as a walking disaster and the fact that my life has seemed to be run by toddler poop this week, I feel like it’s been a good week. How can I not? One month ago, tonight, we were sitting in a hotel room in Zhengzhou, going to bed for the last time as a family of three. CaiQun was spending her last night in an orphanage. And here we are – home and well on our way to settling into life as a family of four. I have two beautiful daughters asleep right now in their room upstairs. Two voices call me mommy. Two sets of arms reach up to be held when they are scared or uncertain or fall down and get a scrape. Two little girls occupy the carseats in the back of my car and the seats in our double stroller. In spite of the messiness, life is good. God is good.

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Meet Alison

I'm Alison, wife to one great guy and mama to four precious kiddos. My days are spent loving and caring for those 5 and anyone else God brings into my path, and as I read books and explain math, wipe noses and change diapers, teach and pray, correct and celebrate, I also contemplate and share my thoughts in this space. I'm so honored that you're here!